Jump Start the System
by word junky
Summary: Rose and the Doctor are forced to the other sie of the earth, where a strange company and their slew of experimental technology cast all morals aside. How can the Doctor save a dying continent, willing to anything to survive... 10/rose friendship
1. A big entrance

I know Rose and the 10th Doctor are beyond all reach now except on DVD, but they were so great together and I wrote this story ages ago. I ask your eternal forgiveness for anything and everything I get wrong. Please point out mistakes made in critical reviews as all pointless flamers will receive my strong displeasure. Everything is owned by the writers and the ONE

Lights flashed, the ground shook and wires sparked in the central hub of the TARDIS. The floor heaved and shocks loosened piles of dust from their remote corners, giving the impression the sealing was about to collapse. Amid the chaos two figures, dashed from one panel to another, attempting to stop the lurching movement of the ship. One a lively man wearing smart glasses and the other a blond girl in jeans and a T-shirt, "live bait" written across the front.

"Hit that green button Rose! Hard as you can!"

"What button?"

"THAT button!"

"Oh sure that's _loads_ of help! Do you mean this squiggly one here?"

"NOT THAT ONE!!!!!!!!!" But before the Doctor had finished his warning Rose had already pushed the button. The TARDIS groaned and shrieked as if in pain while the shaking intensified Rose fell to the ground and started searching for something to hold on to. The Doctor went into full panic mode, flipping switches, pushing buttons, checking monitors and pulling levers so fast it was near impossible to realize what he was doing before he was onto something else. "I told you not to push that button!"

"Bollucks! It was the only green one on the board. If you'd been more specific-!"

"Too late too late!" the Doctor cut in, easily avoiding the blame. "Pull the black lever instead!"

"The all-black do-not-pull-no-matter-what-under-pain-of-death-lever!"

"Yes that's it! Pull it when I tell you too"

But you told me never to pull that lever you said the results could tear the TARDIS apart!!"

"Only if we still had the shields up now _pull_!"

"But-"

"PULL!!!"

Rose pulled the lever. Before any questions could be asked the TARDIS gave one final spin before completely blacking out.

Nothing stirred. The only sound came from the patch of darkness where Rose had fallen.

"Doctor?" She tentatively called from the dark. Her eyes searched desperately for light and movement. "What just happened?"

"Emergency landing" came his calm voice of the doctor from the other side of the room. "That lever was installed incase the time shields failed. Yes, traveling the time stream would be really uncomfortable without those shields. You alright there?"

"I feel like a scrambled egg." She answered, now picking her way around the control room towards his voice. "What happens without the shields?"

"We would have been erased from existence."

"Oh, that all" Rose was a little stunned by this statement, what would Earth be like if she never existed? What if the _Doctor_ had never existed! That was something too scary to think of just now. Her voice shook as she said "Well at least it wouldn't have hurt"

"It would have felt like every molecule in your body being slowly ripped apart."

"That bad?"

"Yeah that bad" The Doctor took hold of Roses' hand and lead her through the darkness towards the door. Despite the earlier scare, she couldn't help feeling happy. "That lever forced the TARDIS to land in the first secure and available location. Unfortunately because we didn't prepare her for the jump she'll be completely shut down for a day or two."

"So you have absolutely no idea where we are?"

"Nope"

"But we could be anywhere. We could be on a Dalec ship or the moon!"

"You classify those as _safe_ locations?"

"No, not really"

"Then we wont be there will we." The Doctors tone was patronizing, like a teacher explaining something to a particularly dense student, despite how much she hated this, she knew this was his round-about way of reassuring her. He reached out a hand towards a wall neither of them could see and stroked it lovingly. "Give the old girl some credit, her judgment's better then both of ours… usually" Rose kept her opinion of that statement to herself.

The Doctor lead Rose confidently through the dark until he finally stopped. "Ready?" He saw her nod in the dim light. He gently squeezed her hand before pushing the door open…


	2. This could be a problem

…To reveal the inside of a building. Clean, modern looking with small dark cushy chairs scattered around the main entrance. One wall was all glass giving a clear view to the outside world of buildings, traffic and people as well as all the outer details that make the business end of a city interesting. The fact that an old style London police box had just popped into the area didn't seem to bother anyone, but then the TARDIS did have a funny way of escaping attention, even in the most obvious of places.

"Where do you think we are" Asked Rose.

"Offhand I'd say a city," replied the Doctor

"I picked that one up, but which city?"

"Sydney Australia"

Rose turned to the Doctor surprised "How'd you figure that one out!" she said but he merely grinned and pointed to the banners hanging from the curved streetlights outside. One boldly declared their location, stating _"Sydney food festival"_ with a picture of the harbor bridge and an unusual wavy opera house made out of different vegetables, while the other advertised an unknown exhibit at the Australian Museum.

"That answer your question?" Rose rolled her eyes, he was more obnoxious than usual today, but before she could say this a smartly dressed woman strode briskly up to them. She was pale with large heavily made up eyes and red lipstick, wore a neat black three piece suite and a killer pair of heels Rose really wanted. She would have been beautiful but her expression was hard, almost cold, and her face was so heavily made up it was hard to tell her true age. The overall image was that of a very busy woman with no life outside her office. Carrying a clipboard she briskly handed them both a form.

"The advertisement was perfectly clear. All applicants are to enter through the _east_ entrance off Berkley St. Please make your way there and I will be around shortly.

"Uh yeah, sorry we just got a little lost, I blame it on the buses. Umm, remind us again why you placed the advertisement?" The Doctor had taken on an Australian accent as he boldly asked questions Rose knew would get them in trouble.

"Oh one of those are you? What's your name and I'll see if you're on my list."

"That's important isn't it"

The woman looked over the edge of her clipboard, eyeing him suspiciously "It is if you want the position. I have all the approved inquirers names right here."

"And if we're not on it?"

By now the woman had figured something was wrong "I'm afraid I must ask you and your companion to leave" she said and turned towards a burly looking security guard next to the door.

Rose stepped up next to Killer-heels and gently put her hand on her shoulder "No! Wait. You'll have to excuse my friend; he has the memory span of a goldfish sometimes. Probably forgot what he had for breakfast" she gave a small laugh. Rose, despite many clumsy moments in the past, was a very bright young woman. And from so many 'coincidental' errors in the TARDIS's landings, she had learnt that not everything was an accident. She stuck out her hand to introduce herself. "My names Rose and this is Dr-"

"James Tannen" interrupted the Doctor. While she distracted Killer-heels, the Doctor had come up behind her and snuck a look over her shoulder at the clipboard. Quickly he showed the woman his all purpose ID.

"Yes, Dr. Tannen. Now are either of us on your list?"

The woman scanned her list, and several other pieces of paper beneath it. Soon her eyes stopped moving and she spoke to Rose "Dr. Tannen isn't on my list but I'm not surprised. His papers say he's our new chemist from Adelaide" Looking pleased the Doctor gave a bright smile making the woman blush slightly. "As for you Miss Rose, are you Rose Flinders?

"That's me"

"I have your name here. Please fill out that form and walk around to the east entrance. Interview is at two o' clock. Where is your bag?"

"Mm, lost on the bus. Back at Two" She threw a quick smile at the startled woman and headed out the door, pulling the Doctor behind her.

"A goldfish?" he asked with his eyebrow raised.

"I had to say something, that guard looked mean. And she was seriously creepy, great taste in shoes though. Lets' go see the Bridge I've always wanted to walk across that"

"Excellent idea, circular quay's great fun in summer. Ferries, street performers, ice cream…" He stopped dead.

"What's wrong? I know you like ice crea…" Rose stopped too, she had seen what the Doctor had seen. They had been about to walk away from the giant clear wall of the building when he'd looked back to check on the TARDIS, only to see it being wheeled away on a trolley into an elevator.

"Oh NO!" the Doctor broke away from Rose and sprinted back into the lobby but he was too late. The doors closed and there was no way to tell where it ha gone. The Doctor stared at the shiny stainless steel double doors for a few moments before running to the stairs only to be stopped by a burly security guard asking for ID. He considered showing the psychic papers but decided against it. He didn't know if the TARDIS was up or down, and nobody was likely to tell him, slowly he walked back to Rose. She had followed him in, her face showed the same look of fear and uncertainty he was feeling. Quickly pulling himself together he stuck out his chin and tried to smile. "The bridge will have to wait Rose, We've got some forms to fill out."

After visiting a bank teller they got a table in a neat looking café down the road.

"We have to get in that building. I'm set, chemists are great! Twenty-second century drugs are brilliant, so many breakthroughs in so little time. It's the first century they used Nanobots for evolving diseases, cured most forms of cancer, well, the blood stream ones. Wonder what I'll be working on?"

"You can wonder about it later 'Dr. Tannen', what am I supposed to do with this form?"

"You don't want to fill it out?"

"Of course I'll fill it out, we've got to get in that building, but what do I write? We don't exactly have a home address here do we."

The Doctor was reading over the sheaf of papers still in his hand "Somehow I don't think that matters. Take a look at this."

The form was the strangest one she'd ever seen. It asked for name, birthday, and nationality. That was the end of the personal information. No home address, phone number, work experience or references. After that brief section was a tem page quiz on medical background. Beyond that there was a disclaimer and waiver for Rose to sign. This was so full of legal mumbo-jumbo they both had some difficulty understanding it. The Doctor was an expert on many things including (of course) Austral-Asian legal terms but this made absolutely no sense.

"They made most of these words up I'm sure of it Ever heard the word comgelitazise?"

"Only in Fuchinian and its not very polite"

"How do you pick the best person for a job when you don't know anything about them?"

"Depends on the job, 70% of all jobs available aren't advertised, and 15% of the ones that are already have someone in mind. Maybe they ask all the questions in the interview. But this wouldn't be a hoax, its too obvious."

"I don't know, most of the shady stuff happens right under everyone's noses. Mum told me of this on guy who…" Here she pulled a face. "Well, you don't want to know."

"What's this about compulsory residence? No wonder they don't need an address, you get the job you move in."

"What, in the building?"

"Possibly, she did ask about a bag."

"All this medical info, and they mentioned something about hemoglobin count in that disclaimer. Sounds like a guinea pig job."

"Great, needles."

The DOctor heard her true fear behind the sarcasm. "Hey" He said with a grin. "Don't worry, I'll look out for you, I'll make sure they don't stick anything too nasty in you. I'll even hold the needle myself just to make you feel better."

"So the Doctor gets to play doctor? Why am I not reassured." She tried to look nervous but she was grinning as she teased him.

"Hey be nice or that needle might go somewhere more painful" He teased right back enjoying how the banter relieved the tension they were both feeling. "And it not like this is a permanent thing, Soon as we find the TARDIS we're outta' here!" Here he looked her right in the eyes "I swear Rose, I won't let anything happen to you in there."

Rose had been travelling with the Doctor long enough to know when he was serious, and when he made her a promis like that one, she believed him. She knew he would never let her were too many questions about this whole business for either of them to be happy about all that was going on.

"Sure, but.."

"but but but. Your all buts and bottom lines today aren't you, stay calm. I'll help you fill out the form and who knows, if you get this mysterious job we'll still be close together. Remember the TARDIS wouldn't have landed her if it wasn't safe."

Neither of them mentioned the fact it had done so many times before.


End file.
